walking in the dark

Everyone’s an evangelist for something.  It’s natural.  If something has changed your life for the better, you want to share that with others, especially if you love them.  I’m an evangelist for Neti-pots and weighted blankets.  My children recently put on an impassioned, full-court press for me to take the Enneagram personality analysis test.  There is just something about seeing someone else experience a similar relief, joy, understanding or wonder that completes your own experience.

The Apostle John wanted to give to others his first hand experience of knowing Jesus.  His joy was not fully complete unless he could see the joy of Jesus on other people’s faces.  That’s why Christians preach to those in their lives who haven’t met Jesus yet.  Their desire is to multiply their joy.  It feels selfish to do otherwise.  It’s like hording a treasure.

Now, you can’t force someone to have faith—to see what you’ve seen with your own eyes.  One time someone I cared about asked me, “Have you actually SEEN a miracle?”   As C.S. Lewis so eloquently wrote, “I believe in Christianity just as I believe that the sun has risen:  not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”   Once you see through the eyes of faith, miracles abound…not necessarily miracles outside of the natural order, but the natural order itself becomes extraordinarily and intricately miraculous.

God is light.  In His light we see light. (Psalm 36:9)  When God shines his light on us, He first exposes all of our selfishness and churlishness in the white light of His perfection.  Ouch!  However, in His mercy we begin to see that every act of generosity or unselfishness is not natural human behavior… each is another miracle.  We take nothing for granted.  We are grateful, grateful, grateful.  And if we’re not grateful, then we are sleepwalking in the dark…light’s shining all around us and we get no benefit from it.  What a waste.  How lonely. 

And so, if you are walking in the dark today, let the light in.  And sing about it!   Share your joy!  “If the light within you is darkness, how deep that darkness is.”  (Matthew 6:23) “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1:7), even when we are physically distanced!  Hallelujah!

Love, Liz

Photo by Meredith Barnes

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